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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Knowledge of the Truth

25 September 2013

Opening Prayer/Worship

Song:

Theme:
Knowing the Lord

Topic:
Knowledge of the Truth

Reading:
1 Timothy 2:1-7

1I
urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and
thanksgiving be made for all people— 2for
kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in
all godliness and holiness. 3This
is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who
wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5For
there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ
Jesus, 6who
gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the
proper time. 7And
for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the
truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.

Introduction

Jesus described Himself in the Scriptures as the Way, the Truth and the Life,
and that no one cometh to the Father except through Him. That was and still is a bold claim to make,
and He went ahead to prove it through His sacrificial death, restoring the
relationship humanity once had with God.
To know the Lord is therefore to know Christ which is the same as
knowing the Truth. Falsehood, the
opposite of truth, has a way of promising that which it can neither give nor
fulfill. In the secular world, there are
all manner of falsehoods but the end thereof is usually unsatisfactory; leaving
the person always yearning for more. The
truth will always remain that true satisfaction can only come through encounter
and knowledge of Christ. Jesus Christ is
the only Truth, and knowledge of Him will guide us safely through life to an
eternal life, hereafter.

Questions/Discussion

1.
What are some of the signs of a life of falsehood?

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

18You who are my Comforter in sorrow, my heart
is faint within me. 19Listen to the cry of my people from a land far
away: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they
aroused my anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?” 20“The
harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.” 21Since
my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me. 22Is
there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no
healing for the wound of my people?

1Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.

Hosea 4:1-13

1Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge
to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land. 2There is only cursing, lying
and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows
bloodshed. 3Because of this the land dries up, and all who live in it
waste away; the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the fish in the
sea are swept away.

4“But let no one bring a charge, let no one accuse another, for your
people are like those who bring charges against a priest. 5You
stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy
your mother— 6my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
“Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because
you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children. 7The
more priests there were, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their
glorious God for something disgraceful. 8They feed on the sins of my
people and relish their wickedness. 9And it will be: Like people,
like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for
their deeds. 10“They will eat but not have enough; they will engage
in prostitution but not flourish, because they have deserted the Lord to give
themselves 11to prostitution; old wine and new wine take away their
understanding. 12My people consult a wooden idol, and a diviner’s
rod speaks to them. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are
unfaithful to their God. 13They sacrifice on the mountaintops and
burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade
is pleasant. Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your
daughters-in-law to adultery.

Matthew 23:1-7, 23-28

1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2“The
teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3So you
must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for
they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy,
cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves
are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 “Everything they do
is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on
their garments long; 6they love the place of honor at banquets and
the most important seats in the synagogues; 7they love to be greeted
with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. 23
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a
tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more
important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have
practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind
guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. 25 “Woe to you,
teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the
cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind
Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also
will be clean. 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees,
you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the
outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything
unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as
righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

2.
What are the lessons for us in Luke 16:1-13?

Luke
16:1-13

1Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was
accused of wasting his possessions. 2So he called him in and asked
him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management,
because you cannot be manager any longer.’ 3 “The manager said to
himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong
enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4I know what I’ll do so that,
when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ 5
“So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How
much do you owe my master?’ 6 “ ‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’
he replied.

“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it
four hundred and fifty.’

7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “ ‘A thousand
bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight
hundred.’ 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he
had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing
with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9I tell you,
use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you
will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can
also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also
be dishonest with much. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in
handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And
if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give
you property of your own?

13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you
will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

3.
Discuss the benefits and challenges involved in knowing the Truth (Christ) and
living in Him.

John 8:31-47

31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my
teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the
truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33They answered him, “We
are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say
that we shall be set free?” 34Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you,
everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35Now a slave has no permanent
place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36So if the
Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37I know that you are
Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you
have no room for my word. 38I am telling you what I have seen in the
Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father. ” 39“Abraham
is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus,
“then you would do what Abraham did. 40As it is, you are looking for
a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.
Abraham did not do such things. 41You are doing the works of your
own father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only
Father we have is God himself.” 42Jesus said to them, “If God were
your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come
on my own; God sent me. 43Why is my language not clear to you?
Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44You belong to your
father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a
murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in
him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the
father of lies. 45Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe
me! 46Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the
truth, why don’t you believe me? 47Whoever belongs to God hears what
God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

Galatians 5:1-15

1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do
not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 2Mark my
words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will
be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets
himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4You
who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you
have fallen away from grace. 5For through the Spirit we eagerly
await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing
that counts is faith expressing itself through love. 7You were running
a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8That
kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9“A
little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” 10I am
confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing
you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11Brothers
and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being
persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12As
for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate
themselves! 13You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.
But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh ; rather, serve one another
humbly in love. 14For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this
one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15If you bite and
devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Philippians
3:2-14

2Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.
3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his
Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though
I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have
reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on
the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of
Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting
the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

7But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of
Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the
surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost
all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9and be
found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but
that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on
the basis of faith. 10I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power
of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in
his death, 11and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the
dead. 12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already
arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus
took hold of me. 13Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself
yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and
straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win
the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Intercession/Worship

Conclusion

To know Christ is to know the truth and be set free. Let us continue to seek Him through the
strength and grace He provides.

Closing
Prayer (Collect for eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost)

Almighty
God, you have created the heavens and the earth, and ourselves in your
image. Teach us to discern your hand in
all your works and to serve you with reverence and thanksgiving; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and for ever. Amen.